


Secrets

by DGCatAniSiri



Series: Secrets-verse [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 16:59:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1825576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Goes AU after 1x13.</p>
<p>Secrets suck. Especially when they're secret relationships. And when that person you're in a secret relationship with is your best friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written during the hiatus of the two parts of season one.

Secrets suck. If Finn Hudson had learned anything from the whole drama between him, Quinn, and Puck, that was it. He hated keeping secrets. 

So why, he wondered, was he letting Puck convince him that they needed to keep their relationship a secret?

He hadn’t expected to fall for Puck, and especially not after he’d knocked Quinn up. He’d been sure that his friendship with Puck had been shot to hell after that. But a few days after Sectionals, Puck had shown up while Finn’s mom took Quinn to a doctor’s appointment (even though the baby wasn’t Finn’s, neither he nor his mother could just toss her out on the street). Puck had insisted on talking. Since Finn wasn’t at school, he could go ahead and punch Puck like he’d wanted to. But then, while they were wrestling on the ground, their eyes had locked and one of them had slammed his lips onto the others’, he wasn’t sure who’d done it first.

The kissing had led to more and they’d eventually come out of the haze of hormones upstairs, naked and uncomfortably wedged together on Finn’s bed, which certainly hadn’t been built to house two jocks, especially when said jocks engaged in wild monkey love. And then, before Finn even had the chance to think to himself ‘what the hell just happened,’ Quinn and Finn’s mom had arrived. They’d hastily dressed before the women had entered the house, after a moment of awkwardness where Finn thought he was putting on Puck’s underwear until Puck said he hadn’t been wearing underwear. They’d just gotten to put their clothes on and Finn had barely gotten them past the loading screen on Halo before Finn’s mother, Quinn beside her, knocked on the door. 

Somehow, after that, sex became something they did regularly. After a while, it became so regular, Finn asked if it meant that they were dating. Puck had shrugged. That was as close to an answer that Puck would give, but Puck was giving as much as he got when they had sex. That counted for something, right?

If they were dating, though, they had crappy excuses for dates. Game nights at Finn’s while his mother and Quinn were out, a couple of sorry excuses for dinner at Puck’s house while his mother and sister were at services or Girl Scout meetings, and a movie they’d seen with Quinn that only counted because the popcorn triggered something with the pregnancy that caused her to spend the majority of it in the ladies room (Puck had made Finn call Rachel to stay with her until Quinn was done in the bathroom, to make sure she and the baby were all right). And, of course, whenever they could be certain they’d be left alone long enough, they’d have sex. They were sixteen year old boys, it was all but required. 

After the way things had turned out between the three of them, Finn had sworn never to keep secrets again. But here he was, keeping the fact that he and Puck were semi-dating from everyone. Sure, he understood not telling the other guys on the sports teams – he’d had enough slushies thrown at him just for being in Glee, thank you very much. But the others in Glee would understand and keep it quiet – who would they tell? Okay, Brittany and Santana might gossip about it, Santana for revenge against Puck for dumping her and Brittany because she wouldn’t understand why it was something that should be kept quiet, but everyone else could be trusted, and even the two Cheerios would understand the idea of keeping it quiet so that the others didn’t hate them. It would make Glee club extremely uncomfortable. 

Finn knew that it was unusual for Puck to let himself be tied down to a single person, but he’d noticed that Puck had been texting less and less while they’d been together. Finn knew he was at times naïve, but even he knew better than to just assume that because he and Puck were... together, that meant they were exclusive. But it seemed that Puck had been making sure that Finn took up his time, not anyone else.

So if Puck was giving him that... was it possible that they were exclusive? Finn didn’t know, and it was one of the most frustrating things about their ‘relationship’ or whatever they had. Puck didn’t talk about it, and even if he did... It was Puck. He’d sexted with Santana while he was baby-sitting with Quinn and lied about it so easily.

As usual when his thoughts were tied up with something deep like this, it was affecting his sleep, which would inevitably throw him off during practice, both for basketball and Glee. Mr. Shue pulled him aside after practice one day, looking concerned.

“Finn, what’s wrong with you?”

Finn moaned slightly and rubbed at his eyes. “Sorry, Mr. Shue. I just... haven’t been sleeping that well lately.”

Mr. Shue sighed, remembering the LAST time this happened. “Is it a problem with Quinn, again? I thought you two had cleared everything up.”

Finn shook his head. “It’s not Quinn. It’s... kinda personal.” 

Seeing that Finn seemed determined to stay clammed up, Will sighed. “Well, if it’s throwing you off like this, it’s definitely something you need to have dealt with soon,” he said. Finn nodded, agreeing with the statement.

***

Somehow, the sight of Puck shirtless never failed to get Finn to forget everything he’d been trying to say. It didn’t matter that three months ago, he’d never looked twice at his best friend’s chest, except maybe to notice that Puck had a far better body that his own. Now, though, it was practically impossible to take his eyes off of his friend’s body. What was irritating was that Puck knew it. If he didn’t like where Finn was taking the conversation, he’d pull off his shirt and it would eventually lead to sex. Thinking about it, actually, sex seemed to be the direction pretty much everything they did led to. Which wasn’t exactly a bad thing, all things considered.

Still, Finn was determined this time not to let Puck pull that trick on him. He wanted to get this out in the open. He arrived at Puck’s house after his mom and sister had left. They spent some time joking around and discussing things – Glee, Quinn, sports, the usual – before Puck invited him upstairs. Finn knew what would come next. He’d start trying to get Puck to clarify just what kind of relationship they had, Puck would take off his shirt and Finn would stare in awe, and then the rest of his and Finn’s clothes would wind up in a pile and Finn would lose himself in Puck’s touch. One day, Noah Puckerman was bound to be the death of him. But what a way to go.

But Finn decided that tonight, it would be different. And this time, he intended to follow through on that intent. He heard Puck heading for the stairs up to his room, knowing that was his cue. Finn took a deep breath... and sat down in a chair in the living room and picked up the remote. It didn’t take Puck too long to realize that Finn wasn’t following him.

“Dude, what are you doing down here?”

Finn flipped through a few channels. “Checking out what’s on cable.” 

Puck’s eyebrow rose in shock. “Seriously? You’re here watching TV when we could be upstairs...” Hearing Puck not being able to say what they were doing – whether it was just fucking or something more – gave Finn the extra bit of confidence that he was doing the right thing.

“If you don’t even know what we’re doing, we probably shouldn’t be doing it,” Finn said. The surprised look on Puck’s face was actually somewhat worth leaving here without having sex. 

“Finn, what-”

“I’m tired, Puck. Tired of keeping this secret. I’m tired of this being just... something we do when everyone’s out of the house.” Finn got up, moving into Puck’s personal space. “I want to be able to go out with the guy I’m dating without worrying if people will see us.” He leaned in and kissed Puck. Puck, despite his uncertainty with what was going on, reacted, his arms automatically wrapping around Finn. But then Finn pulled away, and he barely restrained a smile seeing the dazed and confused look on Puck’s face, liking that he wasn’t alone in losing all higher brain functions when it came to the other boy. “I want... to be able to do that whenever I want, not just when we’re alone. Puck... I want a relationship. With you.”

Finn looked into Puck’s eyes, trying to see if he could get any read on what Puck was thinking. 

“Dude, you’re getting all girly on me,” Puck said. There was a note of discomfort in his voice. Puck always had to be in control, and here was Finn, blowing that all to hell. 

“So maybe I am. Doesn’t mean that’s not what I want.” Finn stared at Puck, doing his best to give him a look of ‘I dare you.’ “Puck, are we dating? Are we boyfriends? That’s how this is supposed to work.”

Finn’s usage of the word ‘boyfriends’ sparked a surge of anger from Puck. “I’m no homo! Do I look like Hummel?” Puck spat. He may have grown more friendly with Kurt since joining Glee, but he still saw gays solely as prima donna queens who were more feminine than their straight counterparts. 

“No. You don’t.” Finn got as close as he could to Puck without being overcome with the urge to kiss him. “You look like a coward. You look like you’re afraid to be seen dating me. You’re afraid of being called worse things by the teams than you already are because you’re in Glee. And I’m not going to put up with it.” Puck stared at him, not really sure of what to do – this was a new side of Finn, one he didn’t see very often. “Puck... I want to be with you. I don’t care what the other guys on the team or in Glee say, I want to be with YOU.”

Puck fumbled for words for a moment, not quite sure how to react to that declaration. “Finn... Look, we’re best friends. I... Why mess with that?” 

“We already messed with that the first time we had sex.” Puck couldn’t exactly argue that fact. “Now... Puck, what are we? Cuz if all you want is sex, then I’m leaving, right now. But if you want something more... say it.”

Finn let the words hang in the air for a few moments, but when he realized that Puck wasn’t going to say anything, he turned and headed for the door. He heard what might have been Puck attempting to come up with something to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to look back at him – he’d lose his nerve if he did. Once the door closed behind him, he sighed in relief, amazed he’d managed to withstand... well, Puck. 

Now he just had to stick his guns.

***

By the second day after telling Puck what he wanted, Finn was getting antsy. Sex with Puck was like an addiction, and quitting him cold turkey was hell. Not to mention how awkward it made Glee.

The others began to notice it too. After all, things between Finn and Puck had practically become a tennis match – best friends to brawling on the floor to stony silence and back to best friends (with benefits, though the others in Glee hadn’t known that). Now, with the sudden coldness, the other members of Glee were concerned that this would distract them both. Puck wasn’t as much of a concern, but if Finn was heavily off his game, it would totally screw them over at Regionals. 

“Is it the baby?” Kurt offered as he, Mercedes, Artie, and Tina proceeded through the halls to the school’s single ramp (Figgins swore the ramps the bake sale money was supposed to go to were going to be installed soon, which seemed to translate to ‘sometime between now and when hell freezes.’).

Artie shook his head. “I don’t think so. Quinn seemed as confused as the rest of us.”

Tina looked to Mercedes. “Maybe you should ask Puck. I mean, he did tell you about being the father.”

Mercedes scoffed. “Yeah, and he still hasn’t forgotten that I went and told everyone else. Kurt, you’re friends with Finn, maybe you should ask him.”

Kurt got that look on his face, the one he reserved for bad ideas and worse fashion trends. “Not a chance of that happening.” He refused to elaborate, having come to the conclusion that recovering from a bout of love worked better when you kept as much distance, both emotional and physical, as possible between the two parties. Trying to become Finn’s confidante would shoot both of those to hell.

Mercedes could put two and two together and wisely chose not to comment any further on that idea. Tina looked to her. “What about Rachel? Isn’t she close to them both? Couldn’t we get her to ask what’s going on?” Mercedes thought about that. Although Rachel’s diva ways had been humbled since the combination of April Rhodes, Sectionals, and Mr. Shue’s teaching in general, there was still that part of her that rebelled against the idea of owing Rachel a favor. But if it would get the boys back on their game...

“We might want to ask Quinn first. I mean, she’s living at Finn’s still and Puck’s the dad. She’s probably been seeing more than we have,” Artie offered. 

Leave it to Artie to suggest the sensible alternative.

Kurt nodded in agreement. “I must admit, that does seem like the practical option. She would know more than the rest of us. So who’s going to ask her?”

***

Unfortunately, even when all four of them tried to talk with her, hoping for different results, they got nothing – Quinn was as clueless about it as any of them. The same was true of everyone else, Santana and Brittany, Mike and Matt, even Rachel. 

Mr. Shue managed to be completely oblivious to it as well – he had arranged for Glee to give another performance in front of the school, and he arranged choreography that left Finn and Puck near one another during the entire performance of ‘Gives You Hell.’ 

“I have to give Mr. Shue credit for picking an appropriate song, all things considered,” Kurt said. He’d called an emergency meeting of Glee (minus Finn and Puck, of course) at his house. It spoke to how serious the matter was that even Santana had come to it.

Tina shook her head. “Why are we being so secretive about this? I’m sure if we spoke to Mr. Shue about it-”

“He’d give us a lecture about keeping secrets and probably have another ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ exercise,” Quinn said. Even Artie found himself shuddering at that thought – though the others had come to understand his daily difficulties after that one, it was something that no one was particularly keen on experiencing again.

“Quinn’s right. Telling Shuester is out,” Mercedes said.

“If the problem’s them being around each other, I think the solution is simple. We use our own choreography, stay between Finn and Puck. Then, after the assembly, we lock them in the practice room and not let them out again until they resolve whatever their issues are,” Rachel said. Kurt gave her a look, as if he was reappraising her.

“Rachel makes a surprisingly good argument,” he said. “It does sound like a reasonable plan.” Rachel looked to just barely be refraining from preening and Kurt rolled his eyes.

Santana shot the two of them a dirty look, though. “Fine, but what’s going to keep them from going nuts during practice? Even if we do throw Shuester’s choreography during the assembly, that’s still a few days away. They’ll still have to do the choreography at practice.”

That was going to make it complicated. “We’ll run interference,” Mike offered. “They start going at each other, we get in there and break them up.” 

Matt nodded. “Done it enough times during football season. Mike and I’ll do it.”

There was a little more talk amongst them, mainly going over some of the more specific details of the plan. It wasn’t much, but it was their best bet if they were going to be able to be on their feet when it came time for Regionals.

***

The practices between then and the assembly were hell on Finn. It was as if the moment he decided to stand up to Puck’s refusal to give a definition to what they had together, the universe had decided to completely fuck with him over it. Being that close to Puck... Part of Finn wanted nothing more than to grab him finding a janitor’s closet or something, and making love to him. 

Making love? Was that what this was? Did he love Puck? Well, all things considered, it was the only reasonable option at this point – here he was, insisting that Puck come right out and say that they were dating, that they were boyfriends... It made sense. And he could live with it. His question was whether Puck could.

He had no idea how he survived through the practices, but somehow, he made it through. Then came the day of the assembly. Holy crap, now he was going to have to do this routine in front of people. And the choreography involved him and Puck being so close together. If the universe didn’t hate him, it seemed Shue did.

He had lead on the first verse before the switch over to Artie. That part went off pretty well. But then Finn pulled back to the chorus... and Puck. He could see that Mike and Matt were trying to stay between them, but Puck seemed determined to get close to him.

“We need to talk,” Puck muttered as Finn pulled back.

“Not now,” Finn hissed under his breath. Puck grabbed his arm, giving up any pretense of even going along with the song. He shook off a couple of attempts from the others to pull him away, focusing solely on Finn.

“Look, I’m not... I don’t do the whole ‘relationship’ thing. This is... This is weird for me, all right?”

“You think it’s not weird for me?” Finn asked. “God, you think I don’t keep thinking to myself just what I’ve gotten into?”

Puck shook his head. “I’m... I’m sorry.” Those two words rarely ever emerged from Noah Puckerman’s lips. Just on the basis of novelty value, Finn almost forgave him right then. He did his best to suppress that thought. Puck shook his head. “Finn... Look, just.... What do you want from me?”

“You know what I want, Puck. You. None of the crap you gave Santana or Quinn. I just... want... you. A relationship. I don’t want to do any more of this stuff where we just wait for everyone else to go away before we can do the kind of things that boyfriends should.” He didn’t care if anyone else heard him use the word. Puck just winced from the word, but he didn’t say anything about it.

“C’mon,” he said. “Isn’t... isn’t what we have fun?”

“It is... But it’s not enough. Puck... I want to be with you. ONLY you. But if you don’t, then I’m not gonna just be where you turn when you want some sex, understand?” Puck stared at him for a moment, as if trying to decide what he’d do next. Finn was about to turn and rejoin the song when Puck’s arms were around him, crushing him against the muscular chest that had stopped his thoughts so many times before and his lips were pressed against Finn’s own.

There was a buzzing sound in Finn’s ears that he dimly realized was a shocked gasp going through the crowd. Oddly, he could also swear he heard Miss Pillsbury whispering to Shue, “Well, I told you that having them close together would get them to work out their issues.” Then Puck’s tongue slid past Finn’s lips and he didn’t bother paying attention to anything other than the taste of Puck. Both of their arms came up and wrapped around the other, emphasizing to their audience that this wasn’t a joke of some kind or part of the show.

The kiss lasted for a few long minutes that still weren’t long enough. Puck pulled away just enough to let them breathe and flashed Finn a devilish smirk. “That answer your question?” he whispered, his voice husky with desire. Finn nodded absent-mindedly – after THAT kiss, Puck could say anything and he’d agree with it. Puck swept in for another kiss that was only broken up by Shue racing up and excusing the Glee club.

Back in the practice room, there was talk of this being another disastrous assembly (Artie, barely restraining his laughter, suggested they stop having them altogether), with Shue being concerned that parents would start accusing Glee of ‘turning’ kids gay, not to mention how Sue was going to use THIS one against him. Kurt repeatedly gave Finn and Puck glares of doom and was heard to have muttered something under his breath about how he should have tried to bulk up instead of woo Finn through song since clearly he was into muscle-heads. He was quietly ignored by everyone but Mercedes, who, in time-honored fag hag tradition, promised to have a selection of musicals waiting with popcorn at her house that evening for a diva-fueled bitching session. In an attempt at breaking the ice, Rachel commented to Quinn that now the baby would have gay dads like she did. Quinn was not amused. 

And through it all, Finn and Puck paid no attention to a bit of it. Finn was busy thinking about how he’d gotten Puck to admit there was something between them and mentally doodling ‘Finn + Puck 4EVER’ on a notebook in his head, because he was apparently mentally a twelve year old girl. Puck, meanwhile, couldn’t believe he’d kissed Finn like that in front of everyone. The more he thought about it, though, the more he didn’t care. He liked Finn, more than any of the girls he’d dated. Did that make him queer? Well, so what? He wrapped a possessive arm around Finn, sending out the message that his boy was off the market.

When they finally managed to get out of the school, Puck grinned at Finn. “So, can we have sex now?”

Finn returned the grin. “I don’t see why not...” But first, there was something more important to do. Finn leaned in kissed Puck. Puck’s hands fell on Finn’s waist, and he returned it with eager passion. And if anyone was watching, neither of them cared.


End file.
